Other forms: minerals
A mineral is a natural solid that comes out of the ground, with a fixed chemical make-up and a crystal shape of its own. Quartz, salt, the graphite in a pencil, the mica flakes that glitter in a granite worktop.
A mineral is not a rock: a rock is a mixture, and granite is quartz and feldspar and mica pressed together. The second meaning is the one on the side of a cereal packet — minerals in food are the chemical elements your body needs in small amounts, iron and calcium and zinc, listed beside the vitamins. As an adjective it turns up in mineral water, bottled from a spring, and in mineral rights, which decide who owns what lies under a piece of land. Mineral oil is oil from the ground rather than from a plant. Around the word sit mining, mineralogy and mineral-rich.
1nounmineralA natural solid substance from the earth with a definite chemical composition.
“Quartz is the most common mineral in the earth's crust.”
2nounelementA chemical element the body needs in small amounts from food.
“Green vegetables supply iron and other minerals.”
3adjectivecontainingMade of or containing minerals.
“He ordered a bottle of sparkling mineral water.”
mineral is a natural solid substance.
Mineral came through Old French from Medieval Latin minerale, from minera, 'ore', which traces back to Latin mina, 'ore, mine'. A mineral is literally the stuff of a mine: the word described where it came from long before anyone could say what it was made of.
Medieval Latin
minerale
Old French
mineral
Middle English
mineral
English, today
mineral
Built from
From Middle English mineral, borrowed from Old French mineral, (French minéral), from Medieval Latin minerale, from minera (“ore”), probably ultimately derived from Latin mina (“ore, mine”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA